Daily Lesson Plan Template

Immigration Grade 4: Lesson D: My New Life in America

Course/Subject: Social Studies/Immigration

Grade: 4

Days of Class: 2

Enduring Understandings

Students will have a deeper understanding of what life was like for many people immigrating to the United States. They will learn how many immigrants lived in neighborhoods made up of their own ethnic background, what life was like in a tenement, how work was hard to come by, and how nativism affected their daily lives.

Essential Questions

What was life like for me in America as an immigrant?

Learning Standards and historical thinking skills

Massachusetts Frameworks: 4.15--Describe the diverse nature of the American people by identifying the distinctive contributions to American culture of major European immigrant groups who have come to America, locating their countries of origin and where they tended to settle in large numbers (e.g., English, Germans, Italians, Scots, Irish, Jews, Poles, and Scandinavians). Materials/Resources Needed

1. Masking tape 2. Tenement PowerPoint 3. Guiding Comments (within the Tenement PowerPoint) 4. Reflection Worksheet- “Life in America”

Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks: Life in America writing prompt. These prompts will be shared by the class and reviewed by the teacher. Learning Activities/Plan

Day 1 1. Students will attend this session within their assigned “family” groups and with their assigned teacher. 2. Teacher will open up the lesson by leading a discussion around how most immigrants lived within communities/neighborhoods sharing their own ethnic background. 3. Students will be shown the Tenement PowerPoint, which has primary source photos and documentation illustrating life in and around New York tenements. The PowerPoint also includes notes accompanying the slides to help teachers guide the discussion. Day 2 1. Students will then assist the teacher in cordoning off the classroom into “apartments” that will roughly approximate the size of a New York tenement apartment (each apartment should be roughly 325sq feet total, so 12ft x 30ft will suffice). Tape off areas to make two apartments out of a single classroom, then further tape off a room for a bedroom in each apartment. Use furniture to help make each apartment more cluttered. 2. Let students spend time with their assigned families inside the taped off areas, assist them in experiencing the cramped nature of the tenements many immigrants experienced. It is important to help the kids understand how crowded and uncomfortable these areas were. Elicit student feedback and comments. 3. Multiple families can crowd into single apartments to demonstrate how more than one family often lived in a single apartment. 4. Once finished, students will complete the Reflection Worksheet- “Life in America”. Closure

Review with students the differences between immigrant expectations before coming to America (e.g. the streets are paved with gold) and the reality many immigrants faced with tenement life.

Preview Lesson E

Additional teacher information

Vocabulary: tenement wage nativism (prejudice) landlord rent utilities labor

Tenement Museum (New York) website – offers a virtual tour of a New York tenement and additional tenement background information.